Corsair launches Spec-04 mid-tower cases for gamers on a budget

Attention-seeking enclosures that won't obliterate your budget.

Corsair is calling its new Carbide series SPEC-04 cases "bold" and "ready to stand out." It's hard to argue with the latter, though whether you consider the colorful design bold or garish, these new mid-towers are certainly affordable at just $50 (MSRP).

There are three different color combinations available—black and yellow, black and red, or black and gray. Each one sports "angular styling" that Corsair says isn't just there for looks, but to provide ample ventilation and to hide a side-mounted front panel equipped with USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports. They also feature a tinted side-panel window.

The SPEC-04 supports standard ATX parts, including graphics cards up to 370mm in length and PSUs up to 225mm long. CPU coolers can be up to 150mm high.

If you're still holding onto an internal optical drive, you won't be able to install it here—there are no 5.25-inch drive bays. On the inside, however, you'll find three 3.5-inch bays and two 2.5-inch bays for your HDDs and SSDs.

Corsair includes a single 120mm fan in the front the SPEC-04. There is room to add another one, either 120mm or 140mm (it supports two of either up front), and you attach two more 120mm to the top and another in the rear.

Liquid cooling options aren't quite as robust. You can install a 140mm radiator up front and/or a 120mm radiator in the back. However, you won't find room for larger liquid cooling setups, such as 240mm or 360mm.

There is a large cutout behind the motherboard to help with installing third-party CPU cooling solutions. Several other cutouts can be found throughout the SPEC-04 for cable management.

Corsair says the SPEC-04 is available now. A glance at its website shows that all three color combinations are out of stock at the time of this writing, though we suspect it will be updated before the day is through.